Jim Post's Letter to Bishop Allue
in Response to Recent Banning

October 3, 2002

Most Reverend Emilio S. Allue, S.D.B.
Auxiliary Bishop of Boston
Merrimack Region
327 Gorham Street
Lowell, Massachusetts 01852-3310

Dear Bishop Allue:

I am writing in reference to your letter to Reverend Paul Keyes, Pastor of St. Michael Parish, North Andover, dated September 24, 2002, excerpts of which were published in the parish bulletin on Sunday, September 29, 2002. In this letter you instructed Fr. Keyes to deny the local affiliate of Voice of the Faithful use of parish facilities and to prevent VOTF from meeting with parish councils. By innuendo and implication you also accused our organization and its members of deceit and creating scandal in the Church. These are serious charges made in a public manner and they are without basis.

As the national president of Voice of the Faithful, I protest - in the strongest possible terms - the actions you have taken. These actions are inappropriate based on the facts of the situation and based on canon law. We believe your actions to be inconsistent with Church teaching, Christian morality, the spirit of the Vatican II Council, and contrary to your pastoral duty. You should rescind your instruction immediately and retract or substantively clarify the statements made regarding “hidden issues,” scandal and lack of orthodoxy for the reasons that follow.

First, Voice of the Faithful is an organization of Catholic laity, properly formed as an association under the meaning of Canon 215 in the code of canon law. Canon 215 reads, “The Christian faithful are at liberty freely to found and to govern associations for charitable and religious purposes or for the promotion of the Christian vocation in the world; they are free to hold meetings to pursue these purposes in common.” Further, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council clearly articulate the right of the laity to form associations and set forth their obligation to make their voices heard on matters concerning the good of the Church. Voice of the Faithful was formed to serve the Church by helping lay persons understand and address, individually and collectively, the most serious crisis in the 500-year history of the Catholic Church in North America: the perpetration and cover up by the hierarchy of sexual abuse of children by clergy. This is a proper purpose for an association of lay Catholics.

Second, your letter states that “at the present time, the Archbishop, Cardinal Law, is in dialogue with the leaders of VOTF through his Vicar General, Bishop Edyvean.” This is not true. There is no dialogue at the present time. In fact, there have been no meetings between Bishop Edyvean and leaders of Voice of the Faithful since June 28, 2002. Since then we have attempted to schedule meetings with Bishop Edyvean without success. Bishop Edyvean was invited to speak at our convention on July 20, 2002; he declined. Moreover, he or Cardinal Law instructed members of the Chancery staff not to meet with Voice of the Faithful officials. By any reasonable definition, this pattern of behavior does not qualify as a “dialogue.”

Third, you have acknowledged that your instruction to Fr. Keyes was based on a single letter from two St. Michael’s parishioners, accompanied by an unspecified number of other signatures. Was the number 10? 50? 100? 1,000? St. Michael’s is a large parish, with more than 4,200 families and over 10,000 registered members. The affiliate of Voice of the Faithful itself has hundreds of members and supporters. By what standard do you judge the letter and signatures of a relative few to outweigh the "religious purposes" of Catholics who seek to heal the Church in her time of crisis and pain?

Furthermore, what actions have you taken to investigate whether the complaints lodged by these two people have merit? Your references to “hidden issues” and the need “to avoid further ‘scandal’ ” suggest to me that the complaints lodged by these people may be similar in nature to those of the representative of the organization, Faithful Voice, quoted in the October 1, 2002 edition of the Boston Globe. If that is the case, your decision is based on a false premise. To our best knowledge and sincere belief, our organization has not adopted, nor does it advocate any position contrary to church teaching. Voice of the Faithful prominently states on its web site that “We accept the teaching authority of the Catholic Church.” There should be no confusion regarding the position of Voice of the Faithful with regard to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

To my knowledge, you have not contacted anyone from Voice of the Faithful to inquire as to the truthfulness of the accusations lodged against us, nor to provide us any opportunity to respond. The logic of your action might reasonably be summarized as follows: “While these issues remain unresolved in this dialogue” one partner in the “dialogue” finds the other partner guilty for causing “scandal” and punishes the partner through a “banning” order. There is no due process, no objective ascertainment of facts, no opportunity to hear the defendant and witnesses, no evidence produced, just the innuendo of “scandal” and “polarization,” and a hint of heresy in the apparent lack of “orthodoxy.”

These actions are devoid of principle, not in the spirit of the Vatican II Council, and lacking in Christian morality and basic justice when applied to a Catholic group that accepts the teaching authority of the Church. We might expect actions such as this from totalitarian rulers and repressive political regimes, but not from the stewards of our faith family. Bishop Allue, if you listen to slanderous accusations, fail to verify their veracity, and use unsubstantiated accusations as the justification for your public actions, you are either a participant in or a victim of an unbecoming smear campaign.

Bishop Allue, through innuendo and by implication, your letter defamed the good name of faithful Catholics in North Andover and elsewhere who, acting in collaboration as Voice of the Faithful, have wept for their Church, prayed for survivors and abusers alike, and struggled to find hope in the actions of Church leaders. Your actions in this matter are unfounded and unacceptable. Further, we believe the abrogation of due process in a matter of this nature constitutes a dereliction of pastoral duty.

May we also draw your attention to the immense damage that is being done to the reputation of the Catholic Church. The image of Church is bound to suffer if your way of proceeding becomes known to persons of intelligence and good will outside the Church. They will see in your actions a proof that the Catholic Church is a repressive and intolerant organization. How can our Church say honestly that it wants a dialogue with our Protestant brothers and sisters if Church authorities reject any dialogue with the Catholic faithful?

We hold you and all church leaders to a higher standard of conduct. Rather than ban our organization from church property, we ask you to encourage Father Keyes to find ways to reconcile the elements of his parish family who may now be in conflict. Your current actions only exacerbate the emotional trauma now being visited upon the St. Michael’s community.

We pray that God may give you the grace to heal these wounds that afflict us all. Toward that end, we request that you rescind your instructions to Fr. Keyes, welcome Voice of the Faithful to parishes in the Merrimack region of the Archdiocese of Boston, and apologize to thousands of faithful Catholics who are members of Voice of the Faithful.

Sincerely yours,

James E. Post
President
cc: His Eminence, Bernard Cardinal Law
Bishop W. J. Edyvean

Voice of the Faithful is a Boston-based organization of concerned Catholics formed in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The group's mission is to provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church. Its goals are to support victim/survivors of abuse, support priests of integrity, and shape structural change within the Catholic Church. VOTF's supporting membership exceeds 23,000 registered individuals from more than 40 U.S. states and 21 countries throughout the world.